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Abstract

The historical roots of the Cooperative Movement in the world days back to days of misery and distress in Europe faced by common people who had little or no access to credit to fund their basic needs, in uncertain times.The idea spread when the continent was faced with economic turmoil which led large populations to live at subsistence level without any economic security.People were forced to poverty and deprivation.It was the idea of Hermann Schulze (1808-83) and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818-88) which took shape as cooperative banks of today across the world.They started to promote the idea of easy availability of credit to small businesses and for the poor segment of society.It was similar to the many microfinance institutions which have become highly popular in developing economies of today.